Monday, December 24, 2007

SoCal Cross

Something about "socal" and "cross" just seems odd.

Esp since it was 75 degrees and sunny for the race, Santa Cross, at Pierce College.

All the local hotshoe's were there, Prenzlow, Easter, Cruz, etc.

No call up, still had a front row start (small fields out here).

Got a good jump then pulled my foot out of the pedal...doh. Slotted into ~6th into the bumpy singletrack section. Feeling good. Short sleeve skinsuit, I can get used to this...

Up the steep climb, pass a guy or 2, make the front group. Me and one other 35+ A rider. Ok, now wait....

A small selection is made when Brent, Mike and Tony roll off the front on lap 3. No problem...I am not really racing them right? I am with the other 35+ guy (not sure of his name), and feel VERY good. I pull a bit, and then he comes around and I feel the pace slow...note to self.

Then on the next lap, on the 180 into the singletrack, I feel the back tire "washout" a bit...odd. Are they that low psi? Then up the steep climb, again I feel an off slippage. Down the fast downhill and I bottom out the rim....shit....I am flatting. I swing out a bit and drop behind the Bailey Bike dude and hope it is a slow leak. Then around the sharp turn to the run up and I feel the rim again....I hop off, up the run up and stop. Sure as shit...it's flat. I am done. 1 bike, 1 set of wheels. 15min of racing. DAMN!!!

It ended up being an old rusty safety pin stuck in the tire. True bummer.

First flat of the season, happens to come 3000+ miles from home.

I hope I can save the tire with some sealant....and have gotten the flats out of the way before Belgie.

Happy holidays y'all.

KP

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

the cruelest gift...

Thanks Stu and Chip....how do I keep my race weight till Belgium?

To everybody else, happy holidays!

I am off to Cali to see the fam (and race CX:-))

Friday, November 23, 2007

random Thanksgiving thoughts....

So I ended my run focus again on Thurs : ran 17:2x at the local 5K. Not bad...got chicked:-)

RIP to Mike Janelle : a local CO MTB pro who died of a massive heart attack today at 40 years old.

Sterling CX tomorrow : hope this soreness in my legs goes away.

Also, check http://www.channelmultisport.com/ for a little article I wrote on converting to winter multisport events.

Hug your family today.

KP
www.pbmcoaching.com

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Alex M-M WINS Kona!!


Another well executed race for Alex yields him the overall amatuer win at IM World Championships!


Friday, September 21, 2007

2007 Multisport wrap up

I sent this to my athletes....figured I could put it in cyber world too:

As my 2007 triathlon/multisport race season comes to an end (ok 1 more race…) I like to recap and summarize some of my strong points, low points and other thoughts.

One thing to remember here…I race year in and year out, and get ok results. This in NO WAY effects or changes my ability to coach/guide multisport athletes. I could not race at all, or finish last and I still feel I could do my job well (but that is another long e-mailJ)

2007 marked my 18th year of competition, and may have, at least on paper, been my best. I had to trim the schedule back a bit as family, work, other interests effected me a bit, but I think it all worked out.

Going into 2007 IM Wisconsin was a high priority “A” race. In the end, I bailed on IMMOO as some health issues and lack of motivation conspired against me. I also wanted to race a solid HIM at Mooseman or Patriot Half. Both of these races went down the drain with some health issues in May/June. Then my goals changed a bit. The Tri-Maine series and possibly the Maine State TT series became important. With some smaller target events, namely the Portland Urban Epic and Lobsterman, also on my radar.

Winter 2006/2007 went well, I xc skied almost everyday from Jan 14th, raced 2 winter triathlons in CO and a winter DU in MA (that I won), and my health was good, only 1 sinus infection in March. My schedule was basically xc ski most days, run most days, swim 1-2 days, and bike 1 day.

In March, I went to Tucson with the “gang” and logged close to 500 miles on the bike and ran everyday, it was a very solid week and I felt very strong and motivated.

Upon returning home, the wheels started to come off…

First the weather from mid April to early June was bad…and my cycling CTL actually dropped!! I was able to run/swim but the bike, the mode I use for the most central conditioning and overall training load…was not good. IMMoo was looking bleak.

Then in late May, early June I started to feel tired and lethargic…could I be…gasp…”under rested”? No. I mean I was not training much and my “self care” was really good. But I had nothing, with workouts such as 90min easy bike rides causing me to be really tired and unable to recover. I suffered through this until the first week in July. In that time I won Wildbear Sprint and one of my hometown races, the Bath Shipbuilders Int distance. How…I am not sure. But a win is a win.

After Bath, I took a week off complete. In that time I saw my doc, got a full blood work up and some other tests. Come to find out my seasonal allergies were lingering longer than ever and they were worse than ever. I was prescribed some stronger meds, and within 24 hours felt MUCH better. I was bummed I had lost ~8 weeks of solid training to stupid allergies, but it was a learning experience for sure.

From that week off, my focus was Urban Epic and Lobsterman. My CTL on the bike went up, my peak 20min power climbed a bit, my running felt really good (with some solid weeks near 50 miles) and I was swimming more fluid.

I had 1 of my 2 bad races between then and UE at the Bethel Maine state triathlon and was caught with 300 meters to go. I knew it was the training load that got me that day, so I was ok with it.

2 weeks later I won Urban Epic, against a few solid guys from out of state, by 7+minutes!!

I then took a slight recovery week and started to rebuild for Lobsterman.

On the 9th of Sept, I had another bad race, finishing 3rd at Pumpkinman Sprint after being caught with 400 meters to go. SHIT!!!

Again, I knew the form was there, I just needed to “find” it and race well at Lobsterman the next week.

The week between Pumpkinman and Lobsterman I “copied” from the week before Urban Epic (this is why I love training logs, if it worked once….it might work twice?). On Lobsterman race day the weather was pure shit, but everybody would race in the same conditions right?

I never felt “great” at Lobsterman, and my power numbers reflect that, but I “executed” really well, went DEEP into the “pain well” and ran down a couple of guys to take the win. In hindsight, this might have been a better race than Urban Epic, where I felt good all day and raced uncontested.

As I said earlier, I am in my second complete week off of the season. I will then transfer into some specific cyclocross training, and race through till December 15th national championships…then take another 4-6 days off.

To wrap this up, I want to go over a few things that I never lost sight of:

1: the details, everyday, even when I felt like crap, I did a solid 15min of stretching and self massage. Everyday.
2: nutrition etc. I tried to tighten up my nutrition this year (getting old you know….), I really tried to eat low glycemic index foods throughout the day to keep my blood sugar steady. I only ate “starchy carbs” pre/post workout and avoided sugar, HFCS and trans fats like the plaque. My body weight was between 144 and 147 pounds all year.
3: low hanging fruit : my position is good…real good, and I worked on it even as my fitness might have dropped. I made drastic changed even the Wed before the Urban Epic, and was the only guy to go sub 1 hour on the 40K bike, 58:XX. I might not have been the strongest….but I was the fastest.
4: specificity, repeatability, sustainability : every workout was focused at the events I was racing. I NEVER did a single “speed” work session, never went to the track and avoided group rides on the bike. I did lots of steady state, sub threshold intervals and my run frequency averaged 6-8 total run sessions each week. Most near 7:40 pace….my 5K pace is ~5:30 pace.
5: fun. I went into every workout and race with the goal of executing really well, but also having fun. The results followed.

Results summary:
Channel Multisport Winter Du : run/ski/run : 1st overall
Ironbear Sprint Tri : 4th overall, 1st in AG
Wildbear Sprint tri : 1st overall
Bath Shipbuilder Tri: 1st overall
Maine State Tri: 2nd overall, 1st in AG
Urban Epic Int Distance Tri: 1st overall
Pumpkinman Sprint Tri: 3rd overall, 1st in AG
Lobsterman Int Tri: 1st overall
CELT Challenge Tri : tbd

SO!! There you have it, my year in review (to date) : I highly recommend you all do the same thing. Write it down, send it to me if you want. Make note of the good and the bad. Store in your training log (I will) and refer back to it.

I wish you all the best for the remainder of 2007….and even better for 2008!

KP

Monday, September 17, 2007

More solid results!!

The race season is wrapping up for some...others still have World Championships to race.

This past weekend :

Alex M-M puts the wood to the boys down south with a big win at the Duke Liver 1/2 (that is like 5 wins in a row for M&M):
http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=764

Coach KP wrapped up the Tri-Maine series with a win at the Lobsterman Int distance:
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=134552

Down in MA, Jeff and Kat D. both landed "on the box" with Jeff finishing second to Tony "TD" Delogne and Kat winning outright at the Dover Sherborn Sprint.

Great racing from all PBMC athletes as of late.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Coach KP takes a win!!

all the PBMC athletes are racing well...but here is a little self promo:-)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=128490&ac=PHspt

Train hard.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Coach Jorge on the podium at MA State Tri


after coming back from a broken leg less than 2 months ago!!!


Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Friday, April 13, 2007

solid week...and more crap weather

I gotta admit, some place warm and sunny as a home base is sounding pretty good about now. I am so over the trainer, that I tried to get outside for most bike sessions this week...till Thursday when it snowed 5 more inches. Uggh.

Solid week otherwise :

16 K swim total, and my swimming is starting to come along at that!

another 40 mile run week with a 13 mile long(ish) run that was very comfortable

not sure on bike hours yet (still tomorrow) but it will be fine considering the weather.

Hope you met your goals (training and everything else!)

pbmcoaching.com

Monday, April 09, 2007

end of winter, sunny training....back to winter

so it has been ages since I posted anything here, so here is a quick summary.

The ski season ended on a down note at the Rangeley Loppet. This was a target race for me, but on Thursday b4 the race I could feel a cold/bug coming on. I tried to race, but bailed after 1 lap. Then had a full on sinus infection for a week....GREAT.

I then hung up the boards and started to ride a bit in prep for the Tucson camp. I got 1-2 3 hour rides in then headed to Tucson for 7 days in the sun. It was a great camp and we got almost 500 miles in (plus I ran ~30 miles and swam a session). The last few days the weather was a little crummy so we had to cut back then.

Came back to Maine to more cold and winter like weather, in fact we got about a foot of snow at my house Thursday and had a snowy Easter. I have to admit...I am getting sick of the cold.

I am trying to ramp the training up a bit, but am fighting a little motivation issue right now (could be the weather?), but did get 20K swimming and 40+ miles of running in last week and hope to push the cycling back up this week...until the next snow fall they are predicting for Thursday!!!

Till then...train with joy.

KP
www.pbmcoaching.com

Friday, February 23, 2007

Winter Multisport

so it has been a long time without a post....

Quick summary :

Winter Tri nationals...not great, racing at 8800 feet is not easy from Maine.

Back to a more 3 sport focus but with some skiing as the snow is good. Racing Rangeley Loppet and then maybe Craftsbury Spring Fling. If the snow holds, I might do Spring Series 50K too.

If you are in Boston this weekend, check out the Winter Duathlon at Weston www.channelmultisport.com

Back into some swimming, lots of run frequency, and 3 bike sessions per week.

That covers it...train hard, rest harder.

pbmcoaching.com

Monday, January 08, 2007

Training Updates

again for 2007, I will try to update this a bit more (best laid plans...).

This weekend was crazy warm in ME, but rained Sat till ~noon.

Sat AM: run 4 miles EASY...easy like 8:15 pace.
Sat PM: ride 90min with 2 x 12min @ 280w in all terrain. PE was high for the first, second felt much better.

Sun AM: run 11K in 49:00, mostly easy to easy/steady.
Sun midday: rollerski interval as: 4 x 4min @ "race pace" ~180beats for the last minute. Mostly V2 uphill.

this week is a bit of an unload week.

Mon: swim 1800 easy (my swimming is not good right now) then 15min of easy core/functional strength work.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

how to prepare for winter tri...without winter

or Maine the winter of 2006/2007.

So it looks like 1/14 will be my first day on snow (unless I get to N Boulder park on 1/13) so in lieu of actual specific training, I have my "KP's Snow less Winter" sets here in 45 degree Maine.

Done as :

4 x (6min on the treadmill at 6min pace, quick transition to 8min on the trainer at 40K TT watts ~285w, finish with 3min of double stretch cords) with 4min easy jog recovery.

As of now, even the rollerskiing is screwed as there is a lot of gravel and salt on the road.